Margery Kempte Gender Roles Essay
The Book of Medieval Manipulation: Feminist/Gender Criticism of The Book of Margery Kempe
The Book of Margery Kempe is an autobiography, verbally composed by Margery Kempe to an unnamed priest, recollecting her life and experiences as a Christian mystic. After Margery has her first child she goes through a post partum psychosis and has a spiritual transformation involving a strong connection with Christ. Twenty years and fourteen children later, Margery breaks from the cycle and her husband agrees to a chaste marriage so that she can become a public virgin to fulfill her self claimed penance to God. There are many times when Margery conforms to the gender roles and other times when they are seemingly broken. In The Book of Margery Kempe, Margery lives …show more content…
John Kempe. Her life was existent merely to serve his needs and to continue his bloodline. Back in the 1500s, this was the norm for all women and any who opposed or tried to break free entirely were beaten or killed. Even after Margery became a public virgin and traveled, there were times when her husband still was the more important asset. An example of this was when Margery was thought a lollard by a group of monks at Canterbury who threatened her by saying, “Take and burn her” (Kempe 22). Without her husband there she was a sitting duck for a man to make decision of. Luckily for her, two young men saved her, as she had requested from God. However, if these two were not present, or as kind, who could know what would have happened to her. Her story most likely would have never been told because just being a woman, let alone a woman who is sometimes taken as a liar by claiming to be a mystic, could have gotten her killed. She need a man to step up and save the day, just like all medieval gender roles would suggest. This hierarchical dualism of man/woman that is created in this patriarchal time devalues woman when man is
The Book of Margery Kempe is an autobiography, verbally composed by Margery Kempe to an unnamed priest, recollecting her life and experiences as a Christian mystic. After Margery has her first child she goes through a post partum psychosis and has a spiritual transformation involving a strong connection with Christ. Twenty years and fourteen children later, Margery breaks from the cycle and her husband agrees to a chaste marriage so that she can become a public virgin to fulfill her self claimed penance to God. There are many times when Margery conforms to the gender roles and other times when they are seemingly broken. In The Book of Margery Kempe, Margery lives …show more content…
John Kempe. Her life was existent merely to serve his needs and to continue his bloodline. Back in the 1500s, this was the norm for all women and any who opposed or tried to break free entirely were beaten or killed. Even after Margery became a public virgin and traveled, there were times when her husband still was the more important asset. An example of this was when Margery was thought a lollard by a group of monks at Canterbury who threatened her by saying, “Take and burn her” (Kempe 22). Without her husband there she was a sitting duck for a man to make decision of. Luckily for her, two young men saved her, as she had requested from God. However, if these two were not present, or as kind, who could know what would have happened to her. Her story most likely would have never been told because just being a woman, let alone a woman who is sometimes taken as a liar by claiming to be a mystic, could have gotten her killed. She need a man to step up and save the day, just like all medieval gender roles would suggest. This hierarchical dualism of man/woman that is created in this patriarchal time devalues woman when man is